We watched four Firefly episodes Saturday night, "Our Mrs. Reynolds," "Jaynestown," "Out of Gas," and "Ariel." Yes, kind of a major tone shift there, so I'll write them up two at a time.
First, I was curious about the airing order, so I looked it up and I'm noting it here for future reference, with the aired order in parantheses:
- (11) Serenity
- (1) The Train Job
- (2) Bushwhacked
- (6) Shindig
- (7) Safe
- (3) Our Mrs. Reynolds
- (4) Jaynestown
- (5) Out of Gas
- (8) Ariel
- (9) War Stories
- - Trash
- - The Message
- - Heart of Gold
- (10) Objects in Space
Other than the utter travesty of putting "Serenity" last, I'm not sure I have any particular opinion on the shuffling.
"Our Mrs. Reynolds" (105): In which Mal finds himself in a most unwelcome marriage.
I thought this was hilarious. Saffron, wrong in so many interesting ways . . .
Still love Wash: "Not everybody gets me and Zoe at first glance"—yeah, I bet, but they get it, so who cares?—and, "Maybe she likes shuttles. Some people juggle geese!" Still dislike Jayne as a person, not that this should surprise anyone, what with the offering to trade Vera (a gun) for Saffron (a person) and all. Yeah, I can see that he plays a role in the show, and he can be funny—usually while being a jerk, like "That's why I never kiss 'em on the mouth."—but that doesn't mean I have to like him.
In the shooting script, the Elder was in on Saffron's nefarious plan. My guess had been that she wasn't actually a gift, but had snuck her way into the celebrations and performed the ceremony without authorization, but that'll work too.
The shooting script also has a long bit with River and Simon, where River (correctly) accuses Saffron of being a thief, and tries to convince Book to marry her and Simon. On paper at least, kind of weird, but apparently this is on the DVD as a deleted scene and is funny?
Oh, speaking of siblings, I like the big brother-little sister thing Mal and Kaylee seem to have going.
"Jaynestown" (106): In which Jayne, to everyone's great surprise, is hailed as a hero.
Very funny, though I wasn't quite as enamoured of the song as everyone else seems to be. There's not really room for Jayne to change much, though, in terms of the dramatic necessities of the show, so while I'd like to think that the little knocks to his head he gets here and in "Ariel" will get through that thick skull, somehow I doubt it.
I don't know what the general fandom thought on Simon/Kaylee is, but I think they're cute. (I noticed a continuity glitch, by the way, where the muddy handprint on Simon's back disappeared for a while.)
This is also the episode where River fixes the Bible, and then semi-apologizes to Book once he puts his hair away: "I tore these out of your symbol and they turned into paper." All in all good stuff, though I thought "Our Mrs. Reynolds" was slightly more amusing.